#1 TRAVELING TO ETHIOPIA & KENYA WITH JANE BALDWIN

Earlier this year I traveled with Jane Baldwin to Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley & Kenya’s Lake Turkana to assist her with her amazing photography and oral history project, Kara Women Speak, Stories from Women. Jane has been traveling to the Omo River Valley for ten years to explore the roles of women in the indigenous cultures of this region. Kara Women Speak tells the story of these communities through photographs and recorded interviews with women living in Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley and Lake Turkana Watershed. To be able to travel with Jane, document her process and meet the indigenous women in these regions … it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. More on this is 2015! Learn more here or here.

#2 FOOD 4 FARMERS GALLERY OPENING

Part of me is still amazed that I pulled this off, but I had a successful gallery opening! Not only did people attend, they actually bought my artwork and were engaged in learning about Food 4 Farmers. Huge thank you to everyone who made this possible, all of you are amazing! More on this here.

#3 TRAVELING ON THE T

There is an unspoken rule when traveling on public transportation: keep to yourself and keep quiet. I decided to break this rule and approach people waiting for the T or in transit and ask them if I could take their portrait. More on this here.

#4 PHOTOSHOOT WITH SKYLAR KERGIL

Opening fan mail, a fat cat, long-exposures next to the T, walking around Cambridge, shaving, and my favorite rooftop. I love working with Sky. More on this here.

#5 WHITEFACE MOUNTAIN ENGAGEMENT PHOTOSHOOT

The top of a mountain, sunset, forests and lakes, these are a few of my favorite things. This photoshoot was particularly great because Carolyn & Max chose locations that were important to both of them and we were able to have a lot of fun exploring Whiteface Mountain and Lake Placid. More on this here.

#6 PHOTOGRAPHING THE GANG OF THIEVES

I spent a day photographing The Gang of Thieves. Love these guys and love their music. More on this here.

#7 FLOATING SELF PORTRAIT

In a continuation of my photography series Anisocoria, I feel this image accomplished my goal of creating a photograph that reflected the feeling of emotionally floating. This was also a particularly challenging photoshoot. I don’t have an assistant, so setting up the camera (tripod, timer, fixed depth) was challenging, and then, of course, I was constantly blinded by direct sunlight and waterlogged. More on this here.

#8 PHOTOGRAPHING TWO OF MY OLD FRIENDS GETTING MARRIED

This was a really special day for me. I’ve known Asher & Rosa since high school (fun fact I played the fairy queen and Asher played the donkey in a Midsummer Night’s Dream back in the day), and being there to document their wedding meant a lot to me. More on this here. 

#9 SHOWING MY FOOD 4 FARMERS WORK AT SCAA

Some of you may already know this, but I sort of grew up in the coffee industry. My dad is a coffee specialist, so along with having high caffeine content in my bloodstream after age 15, I’ve attended the SCAA many times. But 2014 was the first time I felt I truly experienced SCAA, as I was a participant. I spent my time working the Food 4 Farmers booth, showing my photographs, meeting great coffee people, and imagining what it would be like to live in Seattle. More on this here.

#10 LEARNING QUICKBOOKS

A better title for this would be finally learning Quickbooks. Wow this program gave me some serious headaches and moments of pure fury/depression (picture me, alone with an empty mug of coffee saying over and over “oh god, I’ll never get it to work”) – but after MUCH persistence and Lynda videos I finally got the darn thing set up! 

So those are my top moments!

I’d like to take a moment to say THANK YOU to everyone to has contributed to the last year. I’m so excited for 2015 and I really really really appreciate all of your support.